The FCC shouldn’t subject VoIP to state universal service fees without first seeking comment, said House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Joe Barton, R-Texas, and Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla. In a letter Tuesday to Genachowski, the Republicans said the FCC should “afford this issue due consideration in a notice of proposed rulemaking, rather than just address it in a declaratory ruling.” Levying state fees “would alter settled expectations and could have a significant impact on investment, economic growth, and broader universal service reform,” they said. “Addressing this in a declaratory ruling would not only provide short shrift to a matter of consequence, it could also raise additional issues about retroactive applicability of such fees.” The FCC circulated an item July 22 responding to a petition by the Nebraska Public Service Commission and the Kansas Corporation Commission for declaratory ruling that states may assess Universal Service Fund (USF) fees on VoIP intrastate revenue (CD Aug 9 p9). States “disagree with any suggestion that a rulemaking is necessary,” said Brad Ramsay, general counsel of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Vonage has stated it doesn’t object to paying state USF fees, and the FCC previously agreed that the statute requires Vonage to pay, he said. “Blocking these assessments can only increase pressure on the already burdened federal USF programs."
Verizon and Google unveiled Monday the details of their agreement on a proposal for net neutrality legislation, which would exempt wireless from rules except those on disclosure. The principles would create what critics say is an “insurmountable” bar for consumers to lodge complaints, requiring demonstration of actual harm. In another surprise to some observers, the proposed law would eliminate the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer protection role regarding broadband. The proposal builds on an earlier statement by the two companies on net neutrality rules.
Two more House Commerce Committee Democrats shuddered, as reports came in of a net neutrality deal between Google and Verizon (CD Aug 6 p1). “In their effort to gain a competitive advantage in this age of media consolidation, broadband providers are attempting to create a regime that locks information away behind pay walls, dramatically shifting power, and choice, away from consumers to serve their bottom lines,” said Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash. “There is no better evidence than these recent reports as to why the Federal Communications Commission must act quickly to preserve internet freedom.” Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said “these reported side deals by companies risk undermining” efforts by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “Premium pricing for access to the Internet, whether accessing it via phone or Internet, is bad for consumers, especially those who can’t afford to pay for high speed access."
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski made a round of calls to key participants in the net neutrality discussions that fell apart Thursday (CD Aug 6 p1), in the wake of a still-to-be unveiled deal between Verizon and Google, FCC and industry officials said Friday. While the commission is unlikely to host the same kind of talks that have grabbed headlines for in recent weeks, some agreement remains possible under which the FCC could avoid reclassifying broadband as a Title II service.
HOUSTON -- A major question the FCC must work through with the advice of the public safety community is how people will be able to send text messages seeking help to 911 call centers nationwide, said Jeff Cohen, senior legal counsel to the FCC Public Safety Bureau. “Certainly one important thing I hear about … is the inability to send texts to 911,” he said at a town hall meeting at APCO on the regulatory framework for a next-generation 911 service. “We need to figure out what’s the best way to support real-time texting, and it’s especially important for the safety community."
The FCC still does not adequately understand and has not addressed concerns about the agency’s proposal for a national public safety wireless broadband network and the need the public safety community has for control of the 700 MHz D-block, public safety officials said Tuesday during a hearing by the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Communications. But Jamie Barnett, chief of the FCC Public Safety Bureau, defended the agency in his testimony before the panel. Subcommittee Chairwoman Laura Richardson, D-Calif., said she was troubled by the concerns expressed by the public safety officials and would ask the FCC to respond directly.
The FCC should be “functional” in its approach to jurisdiction on broadband transport services, whatever legal basis it uses, state regulators urged. The recommendation came Wednesday in a resolution approved as the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) was ending a summer meeting in Sacramento and included in a recent FCC filing. Any “final action” by the commission should recognize “the crucial role States play in protecting consumers,” the NARUC board said. The resolution “supports a ‘functional-focus’ model of jurisdiction that allocates State and federal regulatory responsibility over communications services,” the board said. As an example, the board cited the way state agencies offer a local venue for investigations, maintain basic consumer protections, undertake consumer education and ensure that programs like Lifeline and Link-Up meet customers’ special needs. NARUC took no position on which of three jurisdictional proposals the FCC should adopt, instead urging the federal agency to capitalize on state and federal agencies’ key characteristics to deliver the service customers deserve, the group said. NARUC also passed resolutions thanking the FCC for addressing wireless early termination fees and other billing matters and urging the agency to protect consumers from mobile-device bill shock.
The FCC should not apply “retroactively” Federal Aviation Administration marking and lighting changes for communications towers or replace the FCC’s current “due diligence” standard with inflexible deadlines for lighting repairs, CTIA said in comments on an April 12 notice of proposed rulemaking on construction, marking, and lighting of antenna structures. NAB, PCIA, AT&T and Verizon Wireless also urged the FCC to streamline its tower rules in light of rapidly expanding communications networks.
The FCC’s Sixth Broadband Deployment Report, released late Tuesday, said only a small percentage of Americans don’t have access to broadband -- 14-24 million in a population of almost 310 million (CD July 21 p1) -- but almost one third of U.S. counties are unserved. Broadband “have nots” live in the smallest, most rural parts of the country and tend to be poorer than average, it said, and Native Americans remain largely unserved.
The FCC concludes in its sixth broadband deployment report that 14-24 million Americans still can’t get high-speed access, and the immediate prospect for deployment to the unserved Americans is “bleak.” As expected (CD July 19 p1), commission Republicans Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker issued vigorous dissents from the report and its finding that the FCC can’t conclude that broadband is being deployed to all Americans in a “reasonable and timely” manner.